To Reni on his 5th birthday

Editor's Note:  I thought I published this on Reni's birthday!  Obviously I don't read my own blog or I would have known this didn't post!  Sorry for the delay.  This was meant to have gone up on Wednesday.

Reni, how can it be that you are five years old? I look at this photo of you and your expression is indicative of the maturing you have gone through during this last year. Several moves, new friends, new country, new language, new life... You ask serious questions, you ponder things and share your thoughts with us.  Lately one of your favorite things to say is, "Actually, Mom, this is how it works..."

I look at you and I can hardly look away.  I never get tired of looking at your sparkly eyes, and the shape of your mouth that can look so different depending on if you're grinning, pouting, pondering, or sleeping. 

I love that you still love to snuggle.  One of your most endearing qualities is your frequent hugs, burrowing your face into our necks and sighing loudly and contentedly, calling me your 'snuggly buggly'.  Your favorite thing before bed is a 'smasher hug' from Dad and ANY time of day you will come up to us, pulling up your shirt asking for a back scratch.  Yes, you're all about touch -- unless it's tickles, then you 'scream like a girl', and you scream well!  

This past year you have discovered a love of Legos and you are so proud of being able to build things all by yourself.  You still love your Hot Wheels and I love that you and your sister can play on the floor for hours with nothing but a handful of toy cars.  And of course, you are ALL boy and love super heroes, good guys and bad guys, police chases... all that typical boy stuff.

In spite of all the karate kicks, the rough housing, and the crashing toys, you are still a sensitive boy with a tender heart.  Always keep a part of your heart tender, Reni.  That's what allows you to feel sympathy and compassion, to see things from another's perspective. 

One thing folks marvel at is your relationship with your sister.  You two are best friends and it pleases your Dad and I that you get along so well.  Sure, you know how to push each other's buttons, but at the end of the day, she is the first one you want to see the latest thing you've built or discovered.

Reni, we love each and every year of life we get to enjoy with you.  While we joke that 'you're not allowed to turn five', deep down inside, we are grateful for another year to see the kind of person you are growing up to be.  God has made you and knows you even better than us.  He has given you gifts and talents and abilities to use for His Kingdom, His Body, and this world.  We are responsible to nurture and help develop those gifts for His purposes and glory, not for ours or for yours. It's a big responsibility but we are so grateful that He entrusted you to us. You are one of God's greatest, greatest gifts to us and we marvel at the way He worked to put us together as a family.

Well, it's a late night.  Your dad has just made an amazing race car lego cake for you.  And now he's wrapping your gifts.  As you went to bed tonight, you had an extra spring in your step and a catch of excitement in your voice. Know that we go to bed with the same excitement because we love you deeply, Reni Boy, more than words can express and are so proud to be your parents.  Mom and Dad.

The not-so-glamorous side of moving

Remember moving?  And not being able to see your kitchen table for days?

And having to hang a lot of these?  (Nathan contends that roller blinds are ten times harder to hang than curtains and he will be glad never to see another one for a very, very long time).

Remember living out of one of these?  And walking around them on your floor until you can figure out exactly where all of the contents will go?

That's our life these weeks.  It's a good thing a lot of ministry is on hiatus now (last weekend marked the end of summer - it's now August break.  It is giving us a chance to settle in; but also set some goals for this next year, plan our events and program content, home school calendar, and establish a new routine for our family (including a lot of independent language study)!

Nathan has converted the kitchen island into a temporary carpentry station where he is devising hanging rods on the underside of a bunk bed for hanging clothes.  No, we don't have any closets. ;-)

But now we going to sweep up the sawdust and put the power tools away, pull out the flour and get out the gift wrap because today is the last day this little boy is officially four.  

Yes, someone is just a little excited to have a day tomorrow all about him.  

Report on our visit to the Pogradec Prosthetics Clinic

Thanks for your patience in getting this report published!  Between recovery from a long day of travel, then sporadic internet, well, here goes.

We found the Light of Hope Center without too much difficulty on Wednesday and immediately felt welcome and at home.

Ellie asked if this toy box was a place for "kids with no legs" to play, but immediately jumped in anyway.

We met the staff.  Below is the general manager, an Albanian fellow named Mandi.  He was eager to give us a tour and introduce us to the ministries and programs of their German-based foundation.

It's amazing how they modified a traditional residential space and made it look not too different from the space we know at Shriners in Lexington!

In one space, they were hosting their day program for adults with cognitive disabilities.  These folks have Downs Syndrome.  They start each morning with scripture reading and singing.  Then they work on crafts.

This gentleman was pleased to show us some of the things he has made.

Across the street they have opened a coffee shop with limited hours that employs some of these individuals to integrate them in to the public.  This is extremely counter-cultural!

Then it was back to business!  Daniel, the prosthetist, immediately noted that Reni had long outgrown his almost-three-year-old pair of tall legs.

He pulled out a pair of kids knee joints that he had on hand, previously used.  In the States, it's not legal to utilize 're-cycled' prosthetic components (don't ask me why -- probably something related to liability), but when a silicone liner alone costs around $700, why not try to save money where you can?  Especially when it comes to children, they outgrow their prosthetics before most of the parts have a chance to wear out.

In our case, our medical insurance draws from a pool that all missionaries pay into, so we try to be conscientious about our withdrawels and not spend frivolously.  Though Reni was/is a patient at Shriners, since we have insurance and the prosthetics department on their premises is actually an outside contractor, we still technically pay for Reni's prosthetics.  Shriners does cover the costs of Physician consultations and in-house X-rays. By getting his next pair of legs made here in Albania, not only will we save the time and expense of traveling to the States, but we might also be able to get him a pair of useable prosthetics for a fraction of the cost of the same legs in the States.

Here's Nathan showing Reni how the knee joint will allow him to gain new movement.

The contents of Reni's "leg bag", plus the 'new legs' we'll be harvesting parts from.

Before we left, Daniel and his assistant were casting Reni for his new sockets!  We'll go back to Pogradec the first week of August for the next step!  (Our boy was feeling modest so Mommy respected and changed her angle -- you can see one of his legs peeking out from behind the curtain).

Thank you to all who prayed for us regarding this not-insignificant matter.  We can hardly believe this is a possibility within the borders of Albania.

Weekend Re-Cap

Somebody's birthday box arrived a little early from America!  We didn't tell him, but he figured it out.  

Nathan provided a great message on Friday night from the book of Daniel.  It's pretty humbling when you're the first one to tell someon the stories we've known since we were little children.  His message was one of lessons from the life of Nebuchadnezzar.

This little guy got a little rowdy in church so he and his mamma joined me in the kitchen while I prepared refreshments.

Our friend Demir lingered longer at the center this weekend.  His kids are at camp and his wife was sick, so I think he was soaking up fellowship.  We didn't mind one bit.  Except he always asks if I've talked to my parents, and if I can't answer in the affirmative, he teasingly calls me "the bad daughter." (vajza e keqe)

Evenings are pretty comfortable in the village and so we pulled out the volleyball after church.

I'm pretty bad about making blanket cultural statements.  But I'm going to make another.  Folks here take competition to a whole 'nother level.  I have a feeling our next Albanian lesson will be in the 'dialect' of trash talk.

When some usually calm kids were getting riled up by another's words, Nathan told them in Shqip 'not to worry, he's just got a big mouth.'  I don't think they have the same expression in Albania, but Nathan's statement succeeded in breaking the tension.

Saturday's kids club was about the Lord's Prayer and Nathan and I have determined we will memorize it in Shqip by the end of August, and we're challenging the kids to do the same.

Afterwards we scrapped craft time for a game of 'hot potato' with water balloon timer bombs.

After a certain point, those who still remained in the circle had to pass it over their heads.  Here's a wet Nathan.

Here's Ellie dropping balloons from the balcony above (the timer bomb was too intense for her).

She had many boys below wanting to get wet.

Of course Reni wanted to join in the fun.

Visitors are a special treat, no matter how short or long they stay.  My college friend, Kami, has been living in France the past couple of years.  She was going to be visiting a friend in Sarajevo and decided to come down to Albania for the weekend.  She is pictured below with her travel companion, Olivier.  It's kind of hard to show anything impressive to folks who live in southern France.  We've got castles!  Oh yeah, you've got castles and they're bigger and prettier.  We've got coastline!  Oh yeah, so do you and it's cleaner...  But one thing that France can't beat is our prices.

After morning ministry in the village and lunch, we took them to Petrela for coffee, ice cream and breezes on Saturday afternoon.

Ellie LOVES having visitors and she was glued to Kami's side.  Check out my instagram feed above for the message she wrote Kami in her farewell card.

Thanks for coming, Kami, even though your 6 hour drive turned into 10!

This sweet girl.  How she's grown up this last year but maintained her innocent love of life.

And finally, traffic on our street.  We love watching who gets off to lighten their beast's load up the hill and who stays on.  And this reminds me of the donkey we saw the day previous so covered in hay that all you saw were four little hooves.  It looked like a hay bale just ambling up the street.  Oh how I wish I had my camera handy!

A blink of the eye

It's amazing how seamlessly the kids have adjusted to our new home in the village.  

Just bring his cars and his legos, and he's a happy camper.

I'm posting this update from Pogradec, Albania.  Tomorrow we meet with the German prosthetics clinic in this town.  I don't know what to expect from this consultation, to be honest.  By visiting these folks, it doesn't mean we are unhappy with the service we have received at Shriners.  But the truth is, I think there will be a day when we need closer access to a prosthetist than a plane ride across an ocean.  Someone to repair a broken joint.  Someone to adjust a fitting to be more comfortable.

Pogradec is about a 3 hour drive from Vlashaj.  Or, about the length of time it would take us to drive to Indianapolis from Lexington or Peoria.  

But compared with a trip to the States, it's blink of the eye.

And there's nothing we wouldn't do for this guy!

Bringing back the past... and printing photos in a land without Shutterfly

Anyone who knows me and my dad knows we love photography.  

But really, photography is just a representation of what we truly value -- relationships, sentimentality, memories... capturing moments from the past and holding onto them so we don't forget.  

Several years ago I was given some advice that I've never forgotten:  

1) If you don't take a photo of it, it never happened, and

2.) You will only remember those moments that you have photographed

(in other words, photographs are memory triggers)

_____________________________

This winter we repainted the main meeting room in the ministry center.  It was a good excuse to take down all the random bits and pieces that had been hanging on the walls for years and start over again for a fresh look. 

In March, Abby designed a mural to go on the long wall through which you enter the room.  It's been fantastic and enjoyed by everyone who visits.  She had the foresight and generosity to include the community in the project so they feel like they have contributed too.  I love that it gives imagery to Scripture and hopefully imprints the verses they represent on the hearts of those who enter the space.

But we we had three more blank walls.  Lots of possibility. I had an idea of what I wanted to do with the wall opposite the mural, but it would take some careful planning.

Here's a "before" photo I took with my camera phone:

Over the fifteen years that Planters has been in Vlashaj, my dad and I have taken a LOT of photographs.  It's bothered me that I haven't done a better job sharing some of those pictures we have taken.  I'm sure our village friends have wondered what in the world we've done with all those photos we have snapped.  To be sure, some have been printed and given as gifts, others have served as wonderful stock photos, communicating the work in this community to partners in the States, but many, many others have sat lost in digital oblivion, a collection of 1s and 0s.

It occurred to me that it might be special to all involved if I displayed images from over the years as a "virtual timeline" to honor the village.  But being new to Albania, on a limited budget without the plethora of printing options available "back home", how was I going to see this idea materialized? I needed to find places to get these images printed and displayed in a manner that wouldn't cost a small fortune.

I'll spare you a lot of details, but suffice it say, all because the framer at my favorite frame shop got arrested (and the framing department closed indefinitely), I stumbled upon a very economical alternative to traditional printing and framing large pieces of wall art!

My first discovery was an advertisement/print shop that prints digital files on canvas quite inexpensively (a fraction of the cost of paper prints of equivalent size, don't ask me why -- I'm half afraid they're going to discover they made a mistake in their pricing and I'm going to be brought back to reality).

Then, I discovered an art shop that makes and sells blank white stretched canvases for artists/painters. With a little bit of explanation from me, they made a frame to suit the size of my test photo, then wrapped my printed canvas entirely around the edges of the frame so no white border showed and stapled it to the back of the frame.  Nathan added a simple sawtooth hanger and voila!  I had a ready-to-hang piece of photo art! My test piece, a 16x24" print around a thin wooden frame, printing and stretching included cost the equivalent of $13 USD, cheaper than an off-the-shelf frame at Hobby Lobby!

With my production sources figured out, it was suddenly down to drawing up a layout and selecting images to use!  Granted, it's not as convenient as one-stop-online ordering and doorstep delivery like back home, but for the price difference, a little bit of extra walking and metric conversions is worth it!

A couple of weeks later and here's Nathan hanging up the first phase of my photo display.  I went with a combination of thick and thin wrapped frames for interest and dimension:

(I apologize for the camera phone quality) The top left photo is an image of the original center before a second floor was added.

The reaction to the photos surpassed my expectations.  From oldest to the youngest, everyone has peered at them with utter fascination, even those who were not living here when some of the images were captured. 

Then it dawned on me.  Until just the last few years when camera phones became more affordable, no one in this village had a means of capturing every day photos of their lives.  There's no local newspaper, no yearbooks, no school picture day here.  It's like someone opened a time-capsule, or transported them back in time.  

Poverty meant more to them than a lack of enough to eat or extra clothes in their wardrobe.  It meant the lack of a personal or community history through something I've taken for granted: photographs.

My favorite reactions have come from folks pointing to the kids in the big group photo:

"That's Flevi's brother!  Oh!  She's in Italy now.  Look how skinny so-and-so was back then!  He's not skinny anymore!  That kid? He now owns the car wash in Maminas!"

Throughout the weekend, if we had the gate open, kids would come in with their friends to show them the photographs on the wall.  Shpresa joked that we should charge admission for our 'exposition!'

Even the ones who count themselves in the 'new crowd' were particularly tickled to be immortalized on the wall.

Just like family photos help our temporary apartment feel like home, I hope seeing their faces on the walls not only gives our village friends more ownership in the center but a sense of welcome and belonging when they enter the doors.  

Now I can't wait to tackle the rest of my project!  If you're reading this and you have visited Vlashaj, send me some of your favorite photographs to consider!  I have big gaps in my photo collection as most of our photo files are in the States.  I want to include as many different individuals and families as possible.